[Sponsor Love] 8-wired: beer love.

Wondering what you can do to help fund more trails this summer? Well here’s your easiest answer yet: Drink Beer!8 Wired and Trail Fund have teamed up to raise money for trails with the Hoppy Trails Pale Ale - a portion of the sale from each beer goes straight to Trail Fund.Speaking from his part-time home in Colorado, 8 Wired’s ‘international man of beer’ Brian Watts says if it goes well the beer could become a seasonal regular.“I would love to have it year round, but it might end up being a six month or summer seasonal that we do where we are able to raise money for the trails.”The beer is an easy drinking, flavourful pale ale brewed with a mix of New Zealand and Australian hops.Brian says it’s brewed as a perfect post ride beer or even a cheeky mid ride pickup if you are so inclined.He says the idea to brew a trails beer came after working on the Ales for Trails events for about four years.“I initially reached out to Russel Garlick with the Wellington Mountain Bike Club and he got us hooked up with the Trail Fund people – I’m just a mountain biker at heart and love doing it so trail building was something we wanted to support and give back to.”8 Wired wanted to do something a bit different with the can design so they worked with a design firm using the Trail Fund topo map jersey as the starting point.Brian says they contacted mountain bikers all round the world as they worked through each iteration of it, and they are also making some jerseys that have a similar design.The beer is available at all good beer stores – but it will also be starring at the Ale for Trails events which kick off in November.“The cans are available at all the events, we’ll also have about four 8 wired beers on tap – we donate some of that beer so the bar can make a donation to the local bike club.“I’m always excited about it because I do a lot of beer events in New Zealand and I always love the Ales for Trails ones because they are a little bit different – rather than just being all craft beer lovers, it’s more of the bike crowd that also likes beer.”Ales for Trails kicks off in Kumeu on Saturday November the 4th, then makes its way down the North Island with events in Warkworth, Hamilton, Rotorua and Wellington on the 7th.The South Island starts in Kaiteriteri on November the 9th then passes through Blenheim, Christchurch and Arrowtown, with the final night in Queenstown on November the 14th.For the beers geeks amongst us here’s the breakdown of the Hoppy Trails Pale Ale: